“282 vessels not missing from ports,” NPA replies Senate

…Demands verifiable documents for full investigation

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has stated that no vessel is missing from the nation’s ports, and demanded that the Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff make available to it documents bearing verifiable data to enable it carryout full investigation in the case of an alleged 282 missing vessels from the ports between 2010 and 2016.

It would be recalled that the Senate had on July 17, 2017, summoned the management of the NPA to appear before it following allegation of the missing vessels from the nation’s ports.

In a statement by the Public Affairs Department, the NPA Management said it was only able to identify five vessels of the 29 items sent to it in a document by the committee.

It said that, while the NPA worked on the documents and sent the necessary report, it was found that the other 24 items were mere repetitions of the identifiable five vessels.

The statement reads in part, “Of the 29 items handed over to the NPA on July 20, 2017, only five vessels were identifiable. We discovered that the other 24 items are repetitions of the five vessels that were identified.

“A report to this effect with relevant supporting documents evidencing payment of all charges for the five vessels has been forwarded to the Senate Committee as requested.”

The NPA, however, stated its inability to verify claims on a second document of items numbering 1-1252, because according to it, there was no verifiable information to show that those number of vessels called at the nation’s ports.

In that regard, the NPA said: “For the purpose of clarification, the documents provided did not have the following:
i.No vessel names were provided

ii.No dates of arrival of the vessels were given (This makes it impossible for us to establish links with the manifest, bill of lading and consignee)

iii.No port of call and name of terminal where vessel berthed were provided

iv.No rotation number of vessels was supplied.

“The Authority has conveyed these observations to the Senate Committee and looks forward to receiving the required information to enable full investigation.”